Newsline: US urged to fill embassy vacancies

December 31, 2015 at 9:54 am · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: US

Former Vice President Walter Mondale said in a New York Times op-ed that lack of action by the Senate caused what he described as “America’s Empty Embassies.” Mondale, a former ambassador to Japan, said there are a dozen or so U.S. embassies currently without heads. And yet, thanks to Senate politics, dozens of ambassadorial nominations have been delayed unnecessarily. At one point in 2014, nearly a quarter of the world’s countries lacked an American ambassador, and even today, despite some efforts to approve candidates, a dozen nominations have not received congressional action — including nominees to represent the United States in strategically vital countries like Mexico, Mondale said.